


Paper faces on parade

by fardareismai



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: F/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 20:04:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18901696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fardareismai/pseuds/fardareismai
Summary: From the Tumblr prompt "Phryne x Jack, Masquerade"





	Paper faces on parade

**Author's Note:**

> A Tumblr prompt fic being moved over to AO3.

He always wore a mask, she realized.  The “policeman” mask.  The one that kept him a step removed from the emotions- the gore and grime of his work.

She wore a mask too.  The one that hid the scared, broken child she had been and thought, sometimes, when she woke in the night from the nightmares of other days, that she might be again.

His costume was that ever-present suit.  He was always just slightly too-formal with his hat and his hair and his pressed waistcoat.  He kept people at a distance that way.

She wore a costume too, though it was more obvious on her.  The bright silks and satins.  The furs and sequins.  They all stood between her fragile, easily-bruised skin and the rest of the world.

He played a part.  He spoke freely of his cases to those people he trusted, and spoke of his childhood to those he cared for, but only to those he loved, those for whom he could remove both mask and costume, did he speak of the time between- marriage, war, homecoming, loss.

She played her part as well.  She acted the open book to most who came, but she drove away the nightmares with lovers who kept away sleep and drugged away memory.  Until there came the night that the man in her bed could be trusted with her dreams.  Until he could fight her demons.  Until he could hold her tender, vulnerable heart in his capable, honourable hands.


End file.
